West Coast Road Trip- Southern California

Franklin and I have taken a California road trip eight times now over the last few years.  This a blog about our 2014 road trip. Perhaps you'd like to hear where we went and what we did. Or perhaps you'd like to take a California road trip yourself and would enjoy some of our tips.  I'm sending these links so you don't need to sign up to read the blog. 

We started our three week road trip on a Thursday, which got us into Palm Springs in the mid afternoon. This allows for some some swimming pool time for him while I go cruising resale shops before the Thursday night street fair starts. 

Palm Springs has lots of older residents, and lots of gays. This combination means there are some terrific second hand posessions in the resale shops. At this point in my life I don't need to own anything more but I still like to look. It's a walk down memory lane- seeing things from my childhood, and there is always the chance of finding something irresistible. I often think how much fun it would be to furnish a house in the Mid Century Style with the things I see here. One shop in particular, Revival, is lots of fun. They have wonderful merchandise, much of which has a real fifties or sixties flair. The start of a three month vacation is not a great tine to acquire 'stuff' but I managed to find a very unusual flower vase. I enter a flower show each summer on the Oregon coast and plan to use this new one in the show. I would have resisted but I just happened to have a box in the car that protected it perfectly and it fit under the front seat so I knew it was meant for me. It's really cute, isn't it? Two small white vases inside a clear glass box, like a painting. It's about a foot tall. The trees in the background are in our yard here in Newport, Oregon, where is have a house for the rest of the summer. The ocean is off to the left but doesn't show in this photo. 

Palm Springs has lots things I like- good food, good resale shops, pretty good restaurants, interesting motels, and a Thursday night street fair. The motels are mostly 1950-1960 vintage (what they call here mid-century) that have been tarted up by mostly gay hoteliers. They are relatively cheap in the summer, and often each room is different from the next. We tried a new hotel this time that lent out bicycles, so I rode a bike to the street fair and dinner and had an Asian massage at one of the booths in the fair. Franklin's neck was bothering him from the drive and he felt much better afterwards. My massage was less terrific but, hey, any massage is better than none, in my book. 

The next morning we headed out to Ventura, a wonderful California beach town with a charming main street. Sorry I don't have a photo to share. All the shops and restaurants are one of a kind- no chain stores of fast food. We could not get into the Victorian bed and breakfast we like, so we stayed at a Crown Plaza high rise on the beach perfectly located with a great oceanview. The restaurants are good and we had nice Italian food one night and wonderful Indian food the second night at a place called The Taj Cafe. I definitely recommend it- great service, very good food. The owners even gave us several extra courses to try that we hadn't ordered. 

We wanted to go to The Channel Islands which are a national park on small uninhabited islands off the coast between Ventura and Santa Barbara. The second day the weather was perfect and we took an hour ferry ride for a half day trip. It is best to book in advance as space is limited. This national park gets very little tourism and it was a glimpse of what California looked like hundreds of years ago with rolling grasslands, and kelp growing in the remarkable clear water.

Our hotel is on the ocean. At one end is the county fairground and the next day there was a once a year swap meet going on so I walked through and found three cashmere sweaters for $10 each. A few years back we had an invasion of crickets in our house who apparently love cashmere and ate up all my sweaters. Now I have a couple to wear in Oregon. It is quite cool at our rental home in Oregon (I am wearing long sleeves as I write this in Oregon) so I was mighty pleased with my purchases. 

The vendors were very California laid back. And much of the merchandise looked wonderful but once again I was retraining myself, as the car was already pretty full. So I restrained myself from looking at the breakables. One glass vase is enough. For now. On the return trip, however, I may not have so much self control. 

Next blog- Cambria and the elephant seals.